@ www.theotherpress.ca Opinions Consideration is just a click away Why it’s important to reply to emails By Naomi Ambrose, Contributor otmail, Gmail, your myDouglas account. What's the basic service that they all provide? They act as a platform for sending and receiving emails. But it seems that many of us have conveniently forgotten about the “replying” part—and that frustrates me! Replying to emails shows that you have good manners. You know how you say thank you when someone does something nice for you? Why don’t you try the electronic version of saying thank you by replying to emails? When you reply, it shows me that you've acknowledged the efforts that I put into composing the message. I assure you that I don’t hastily compose my emails—I take the time to ensure that they don’t contain any grammatical or typographical errors, so please acknowledge my efforts by hitting the reply button. Replying also saves me froma panic attack. Of course I’m familiar with the phrase “I'll reply to your email within 24-48 hours,” but when that time has elapsed, I’m left to frantically wonder whether you actually received my email. If you don’t mind, I’d rather use my thoughts to wonder about whether my favourite box of chocolate chip cookies are on sale. “I get over 100 emails every day” is not a valid excuse. I too am inundated with emails everyday but I take the time to prioritize, read, and reply. Surely you can do the same. I’m not asking you to reply with a 1,000 words or to use Shakespearian language either. A quick and concise reply will suffice. So the next time you conveniently forget to reply to an important email, | want you think about the negative impression that you’re leaving. After all, consideration is just a click away. It’s the end of the world as we write it Computers are taking over the (writing) world By Allie Davison, Staff Writer for bloggers and journalists everywhere. While blogging has only recently become a part of the business world, people (myself included) who are looking to make a career in social media may have to look down another career path. All because of a computer program called Narrative Science, anew innovation making treacherous waves in the blogging world. What is Narrative Science? Basically, it takes statistics and turns them into blog articles, tweets, Facebook updates, full- length feature articles, and even industry reports. Currently, Narrative Science advertises on their website that they will “cost- effectively publish” a variety of news articles (such as sports stories, real estate analyses, and local community content) and business reports (such as market research, sales and operations reports, and advertising campaign summaries). According to a New York Times article, Narrative Science can produce an update for a sports game within 60 seconds. A job that would’ve previously belonged to a hard-working sports writer has now been replaced by a machine. What's next? Robot cashiers? Then again, if you count self checkout machines, there already are robot cashiers. Disaster! [« turning into a grim world It’s a scary world when a computer is able to do your job. Narrative Science is already being used by major companies like Forbes and the Big Ten Network, which includes over 300 TV stations in Canada and the U.S. Thankfully, those pesky computers aren’t going to steal all the journalism jobs quite yet. Narrative Science is still a relatively new company, having only launched in late 2010, and the computer program can only generate basic news stories. When I spoke to fellow Douglas College student and writer, Sharon Miki, about the Narrative Science program, she had this to say: “This hits close to home, because I’ve spent a lot of time working on my craft as a writer, and it’s disconcerting to think I can be replaced by some machine. But, I think there’s still hope—I don’t believe that a computer can replicate the innovation and thought-provoking prose of a human. But, what do I know? My motherboard’s all fleshy.” Disconcerting indeed, Sharon. At the moment, the science hasn’t branched onto my favourite genres, but how soon will it be until a computer can write an article like this one? With the technology out there, the end is near.